A Royal Marriage in Turbulent Times

The story of Empress Wei (died 710 CE) begins in the waning years of the Tang Dynasty’s golden age. Born into the prestigious Wei clan of Jingzhao Wannian (modern Xi’an), she married Li Xian, then crown prince, cementing an alliance between the imperial family and powerful aristocracy. When Li Xian ascended the throne as Emperor Zhongzong in 683, Wei was elevated to empress—a position she would exploit with unprecedented ambition.

This was an era of extraordinary female political figures. Just months after Zhongzong’s coronation, his formidable mother Empress Wu Zetian orchestrated his deposition, sending the young emperor and Wei into exile in remote Fangzhou (Hubei province). The couple’s twenty-year banishment forged a toxic dynamic: Zhongzong, psychologically broken, allegedly promised Wei unrestrained power should they ever return—a vow that would haunt the empire.

The Restoration and Rise of the Wei-Wu Faction

The 705 coup that restored Zhongzong unleashed Wei’s political ambitions. Defying tradition, she installed a curtain behind the throne to observe court proceedings, while her ally Shangguan Wan’er—a former secretary of Wu Zetian—controlled imperial edicts. The empress rehabilitated Wu Zetian’s nephew Wu Sansi, creating a triumvirate that dominated governance. Contemporary rumors swirled about Wei and Wan’er’s alleged affairs with Sansi, whose son married Wei’s daughter Princess Anle.

This Wei-Wu alliance systematically eliminated restoration功臣 like Zhang Jianzhi, who had ousted Wu Zetian. Zhongzong, now a puppet, executed officials exposing court scandals. Sansi’s faction included the notorious “Five Dogs”—corrupt officials facilitating their reign of terror. The political purge created a court where morality inverted: bribes determined appointments, and governance became secondary to personal enrichment.

The Tragedy of Crown Prince Li Chongjun

The 707 coup attempt by Crown Prince Li Chongjun exposed the regime’s fragility. As Zhongzong’s son by another consort, Chongjun faced constant humiliation from Anle Princess and Wu Sansi. When Anle demanded to replace him as heir apparent (an unprecedented “Imperial Granddaughter”), the prince mobilized imperial guards to assassinate Sansi. The rebellion collapsed when guards defected, but the violence revealed deep fissures in Wei’s power structure.

Yet the regime persisted through terror and extravagance. Wei’s circle—including her sister Lady of Guo and Shangguan Wan’er—perfected “oblique appointments,” selling offices for 300,000 coins per post. The treasury bled as thousands bought titles like “Acting” or “Probationary” positions. Meanwhile, Anle Princess confiscated farmlands to build the extravagant Dingkun Pond, while her 100,000-coin dresses exemplified court decadence.

Collapse of an Empire

By 710, the Tang Dynasty faced existential threats. Turkic invasions ravaged the northwest, while natural disasters and mass desertions crippled the heartland. Yet Zhongzong and Wei indulged in nightly banquets, ignoring memorials about starvation. When officials dared criticize Wei’s corruption, they faced execution.

That summer, chronicles record Wei and Anle poisoning Zhongzong to conceal their crimes. Installing the teenage Li Chongmao as puppet emperor, Wei emulated Wu Zetian’s playbook: appointing Wei clansmen to command armies and preparing her own coronation. But she underestimated Li Longji (future Emperor Xuanzong), who allied with Princess Taiping to storm the palace.

The purge was thorough. Wei, Anle, Wan’er, and Wei clan members were slaughtered, their bodies displayed in the marketplace. The six-week regency collapsed, making way for Emperor Ruizong’s reign—and ultimately, the golden age of Xuanzong.

Legacy of the Wei Regency

Wei’s brief dominance (705-710) became a Confucian cautionary tale about female interference in governance. Later historians framed her as the anti-Wu Zetian: where Wu governed competently despite her methods, Wei’s reign brought only chaos. The “oblique official” system she institutionalized became synonymous with corrupt patronage, while Anle Princess’s “Imperial Granddaughter” ambition symbolized the era’s political perversion.

Modern reassessments suggest Wei was navigating a system stacked against her. With no legitimate path to power except through male relatives, her ruthless tactics mirrored those of contemporary male rulers. The Tang Dynasty’s recovery under Xuanzong ironically owed much to Wei’s elimination of the Wu-Wei faction, allowing fresh leadership to emerge.

Yet the episode left lasting scars. The rampant selling of offices degraded bureaucratic standards, while military neglect enabled border crises that would plague later reigns. Most profoundly, Wei’s story reinforced Tang anxieties about powerful women—a legacy that shaped gender politics for centuries. Her spectacular rise and fall remains one of Chinese history’s most gripping tales of ambition overreaching itself.